Table fob ships  cabin s



1VVILLIAlt/IL. BASS, OF CAMBRIDGEPORT, MASSACHUSETTS.

i i TABLE FOR SHIPS `CAIBINS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 10,908, dated May 16, 1854.

` To aZZ whom t may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM L. BAss, of Cambridgeport, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented `certain new and useful Improvements in Tables for Ships Cabins, &c., and that the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, hereinafter referred to, forms a full and exactA specification of the same, wherein I have set forth the nature and principles of my said improvements, by which my invention may be distinguished from others of a similar class, together with such parts as I claim and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent.

The figures of the accompanying plate of `drawings represent my improvements.

Figure l is a plan or top view representing the articlewhen used for a table, with the seats raised for the ingress or egress of the occupant. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal ver tical section of the same taken in the plane of the line' AB, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a section showing the article as used for a chair.

The object and purpose of my improvements is to economize the space occupied by the large dining tables commonly used in ships cabins, &c., by converting the same at pleasure into two arm chairs, placed opposite to each other, and this I effect in an exceedingly simple manner by attaching to the chair a reversible back, which can be changed, being fastened to the frame of the chair by proper arms, from an upright into a horizontal position, the seat o-f the chair being so connected to its supporting fra1ne-` work by a peculiar arrangement of mechanical devices, aswill be hereinafter explained,

as to allow free access to the table and also serve as a seat to the same.

a a a. in the drawings represents the bottom framework of the chair, to which the arms Z) b-ZJ Z) are attached turning on a pivot at c, c. The upper ends of the arms ZJ b are fastened directly tothe back c e, which eX- tends down only as far as the seat, so that by simply lifting the back and turning it over (the arms Z9 b, turning on their journal at c 0, and when reversed resting against the shoulders j j) the said back can be readily brought into a horizontal position, as shown in Figs. l and 2, so as to serve the purposes of a table, while the seath of the chair will remain in its place with its front edge about under the edge of the table or back, which is the usual and mostconvenient position of a seat with regard to a table. One ,half of the table being thus formed, the other half is formed by the chair placed opposite, in a precisely similar manner, as

clearly shown in the drawings, the two backs, which meet together when reversed to form the table, being fastened to each other, so as to strengthen the table, by a sliding bolt f, turning on a pivot at g in one of the backs and engaging with a stud in the opposite back. It will readily be seen that a table can be formed of any desired length by arranging a series of these chairs, constructed and placed as above described, close to each other side by side, so that the backs when reversed shall form one continuous table, and a short or a long table may be made by reversing or turning over any desired number of the backs of the whole set of chairs. In order that the table thus formed may be readily accessible, a hinge or bent piece of metal z', fastened to the underside of the seat', turns on a rod Za Zc con,- nected to the framework a a, so that the seat can be turned upy and then moved alongon the rod /c 7c into t-he position sho-wn in Figs. l and 2. By this arrangement the occupant can readily obtain access to the table or leave it without disturbing the occupants of the adjacent seats by entering at the back of the seat and lifting it (turning on the rod 7c 7c) into an upright position, and then sliding it back into the position shown in Figs. l and 2. After the occupant-has entered the seat is turned down, so as to rest upon the framework a al, and then pulled forward to its original position on the rod lc 7c, thus forming a convenient seat to .the table.

The seat can be attached to the framework `L a in a different manner by means of arms Z, Z, as shown by red lines in Fig. 2, these arms being attached by pivots m, fm, to hinges n, n fastened to the underside of the seat. The arms Z, Z also turn on a pivot at the occupant` While entering as in the first two opposite rows of ladjacent chairs, the 10 described method of attaching the seat to said backs being sustained and operated as the framework a1 a. hereinabove described, and also susceptible Having thus described my improvements of being reconvlerted'into the backs of chairs, 5 I shall state my claim as follows: as abo-ve set forth.

What I claim as my invention and desire WILLIAM L. BASS. to have secured to me by Letters Patent, is- Witnesses:

A table for ships cabins, &c., Which is JOSEPH GAVETL, Y

formed .in sectional pieces by the backs of EZRA LINCOLN. 

